


A Very JackRabbit Christmas

by WritLarge



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: JackRabbit Xmas, M/M, chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-08 00:52:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5477054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritLarge/pseuds/WritLarge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and Bunny slowly build a relationship. A fic inspired by tumblr prompts from sakuradancer3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack remembers, and misses, proper chestnuts.

“I can’t believe you actually have one,” Jack pressed his hand against the rough bark.

“Got a little bit of everything here, though I admit to being partial to ones like these,” Bunny patted the trunk. It was a chestnut tree. A real one. Not like what you got now, with nuts that never tasted right. “They’re stonkered up top on account of the blight that lingers, still affecting any saplings making a go of it. Down here nothing can touch it without my say so.”

The tree was huge and sparked Jack’s memories. Tooth had been helping him sift through them all. Some were harder than others, so Jack was taking it slow. A few months ago he’d remembered the turkey his mother had made, with chestnut stuffing, and suddenly instead of feeling annoyed about the disappearance of American Chestnut trees, he’d been filled with an intense longing for the lost flavour. 

He’d ended up in the Warren pretty quickly after that session. Just being near Bunny made him feel better. Bunny felt solid and reassuring, and while he wasn’t the most sentimental person, he always welcomed Jack with open arms. It had been a long time since they’d seriously fought. Once they’d actually started talking to each other, they’d fallen into friendship, and then, well, Jack didn’t know how to describe it. Not yet. But it was definitely… more. Bunny had listened keenly when Jack had gotten around to confessing what was bothering him, but he hadn’t mentioned the tree.

“Why didn’t you say something before?” 

“Wanted to wait until the nuts were ready.”

Ready? Jack scanned the branches and then the ground, knowing Bunny could feel his hopeful anticipation. “Where?”

“Well they’re gone now,” Bunny wrapped an arm around Jack as he deflated, “but if you come back to the burrow, I think you’ll be more than pleased.”

“Yeah?” he peered up at Bunny, who leant forward and nuzzled him. Kissing wasn’t so much a thing for giant rabbits apparently, but this was nice.

“Yeah.”

They disentangled themselves and headed back, Jack’s pace increasing the closer he got, because he could hardly hold himself back once the smell reached him. The stone-ringed fire pit was lit, and an Egg Sentinel carefully managed a large blackened pan that was jutting out over the flames.

“Come on, Bunny!” he called. “I thought rabbits were fast.” Bunny just laughed at him.

Jack fairly well vibrated in place while Bunny crouched and dealt with the hot pan, shooing the Sentinel away. Jack wouldn’t melt or anything, but he still wasn’t keen on that kind of heat. The chestnuts were dumped into a waiting bowl and needed to cool before peeling. He could totally speed that up. Jack reached for it.

“Gimme.” 

“Don’t freeze them,” Bunny said and earned an affronted glare. “It won’t take that long. Shorter than the rest anyway.”

“There’s more?”

“You kept going on about stuffed turkey and- Jack!” Jack flung his arms around Bunny’s shoulders, nearly knocking the larger spirit over. Stuffed turkey! His heart thudded up in his throat. It was just like Bunny to do this. He was crap at talking about feelings, but when he decided to do something… like giving Jack a room in the burrow, and making a leather sheath to cover the scar on his staff that Jack kept worrying with his fingers, and helping North get the gong working again so he could finally ask Manny why? 

Jack pressed his face into the fur of Bunny’s neck and tried to reign in his emotions.

“Hey,” fingers reached up to card through Jack’s hair. 

He took in a deep breath and pulled away just enough to look Bunny in the eyes.

“Hey yourself, Cottontail.” Jack was in Bunny’s lap now and quite content to be there, where they cuddled a bit, waiting for the chestnuts to be ready. After a while, it came to him and he chuckled. “You know, I think I’ve been doing pretty good.”

“Have you, now?” 

“I haven’t made any jokes about chestnuts roasting on an open fire.” Or started singing any off-colour lyrics like Jack usually did when he heard that carol.

“You don’t even like that song.” Bunny was right. While it was nice being mentioned, a throwaway line in a Christmas carol got old fast when no one who sang the damn thing could ever see you. Jack kissed Bunny’s nose. “And that was hardly a nip.”

“Actual nipping seems kind of rude, though I might consider it if you don’t start peeling,” he gave Bunny a significant look.

“Fair enough.” Bunny picked up and peeled a chestnut without dislodging Jack, holding it out once it was free. Jack could have plucked it from his grasp, but with his arms still around Bunny’s shoulders it was easier and more fun to just dip his head and take it with his teeth, letting his lips brush over the pads of Bunny’s fingers.

“Mmmm.” The chestnut was perfect, just like he remembered, and not too hot either. He glanced at Bunny, who was staring at him intently. “What?”

“I think you better do the rest yourself if you want me to finish making dinner.” What? Oh. Jack noticed how dark Bunny’s eyes and gone. Right. They weren’t doing that. Yet. Which was fine, because Jack was a tiny bit terrified of the idea, given that it had only been a year since he’d met people who could actually touch him, let alone… yeah. 

Jack got up and Bunny shook himself out before standing.

“Try not to completely stuff yourself or you won’t have room for anything else,” Bunny warned him half-heartedly. 

“I won’t. Thanks, Bunny.” Jack surged forward for another quick hug. 

After Bunny left, he sat down in the grass to devour chestnuts, sighing happily. He needed to find something to do for him. Something amazing. Jack wanted Bunny to know how much it meant, being here and being listened to, and, just, _everything_.

Maybe he’d ask Sandy. Christmas wasn’t too far off. He could make it work, even if Bunny wasn’t the biggest fan of the whole thing. He’d even brave the workshop if he had to. 

Jack made up his mind. 

This year, Bunny’s Christmas was going to be awesome.


	2. (Not Really) Secret Santa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack does his best to give Bunny an amazing Christmas gift.

Jack dashed around making last minute preparations. He’d talked to Sandy, chatted with Tooth, subtly (for him) pumped North for information, and even, in a fit of desperation, resorted to interrogating the groundhog. Phil, or Willie, or whatever name he was using at the moment, had been a lot more welcoming than expected. The other guardians seemed to think he and Bunny hated each other, but it turned out to be more of professional rivalry than anything else. He still hadn’t been much help, though.

The one thing Jack knew for sure was this: Bunny loved things that grew. Life, hope, springtime… unfortunately, there wasn’t much Jack could give there that Bunny didn’t have already. What could he possibly get for the spring spirit that had been doing it for himself for longer than Jack could fathom? Bunny who’d had a proper chestnut tree and a motley variety of long extinct plants that he tended with care?

No, Jack couldn’t compete with the past. He needed to do something new.

And he’d found it in Australia of all places.

Jack had borrowed a room at The Workshop and somehow managed to keep the elves at bay while he set up his gift. The flowering plant sat in a pot on a small table. He’d wrapped it with green ribbon, knowing that red was too garish and Christmassy for Bunny’s tastes. 

A ruckus below drew his attention and he heard Bunny’s voice from the main room. Crap! Jack set out the card he’d prepared, killed the lights, and slipped out the window to perch on the sill to watch.

The light from the hall cut a path into the room when Bunny opened the door.

“Hello?” Bunny fiddled with the switch a few times before giving up. He didn’t know it, but Jack had removed the bulb entirely. Too much light and the surprise would be ruined.

“Hmm. Listen, whoever’s up here…“ Bunny’s voice trailed off and then Jack knew he’d noticed the flowers.

They glowed.

Jack had liberated the gift from an Australian biotech company. Chrysanthemums. It was the perfect flower because it was from the Aster plant family, and Sandy insisted that was part of Bunny’s real name - E. Aster Bunnymund. The company had engineered the flowers, with jellyfish genes or something, and now they they were naturally bio-luminescent. Totally unique. Nothing like them existed in nature and Bunny would either would love them or think they were a horrific abomination. 

“Strewth,” Bunny said softly, closing the door behind him. He crossed to the table and crouched to examine the mums. The light they emitted lit up Bunny’s face, tinting grey and white in shades of blue and green. “What are you?”

That meant he liked it, right? Or at least he was interested. Jack mentally urged Bunny to pick up the card by the pot. A few minutes later he did, peering at the explanation on the paper and then tapping it on the table while Jack watched anxiously.

“All right. Where are you, Jackie?” Jack froze. “Come out, then.”

“How did you know?” he asked plaintively once he pushed the window open. Bunny waited for him to come inside before answering.

“I can’t imagine any of the others thinking of this. Too modern.” He reached out to tug Jack closer. “How come you were trying to be all secret like?”

“I- if I say Secret Santa, will you believe me?” Bunny snorted and tucked Jack under his chin. North loved Secret Santa, but the game never quite worked with him involved because he couldn’t resist gifting to everyone. “Didn’t think so. I guess, I wanted to see your reaction? I wasn’t sure you’d like it and if you didn’t… well, you might have pretended to if I’d just given it to you, even if you hated it.”

And if Bunny had hated it, Jack would have been able to feign ignorance and try something else.

“I wouldn’t have had to. It’s a bonzer gift. Human engineering, yeah?” Jack nodded and flushed against Bunny’s ruff. “Where’d you get it?”

“Uh- well, about that…” he faltered, glad that the darkness hid his expression. Bunny began to chuckle. “You’re hard to shop for!”

“What did you do, Frostbite?” Jack explained the series of events that had let him obtain the plant, with Bunny laughing harder as he went on. Okay, so maybe he shouldn’t have done the thing with the wallaby, and freezing part of Gulf St Vincent had not been part of the plan at all, but it had worked out in the end, hadn’t it? By the time he halfway through, Bunny had needed to sit down.

“And I put everything back! Except, I might have left the bicycle in that tree…” Jack tried to remember. He was in Bunny’s lap again, still sitting in the dark with only the light of the mums to see by. It was one of his favourite spots, even if it was currently shaking in mirth. 

And that really was the best part, Jack realized later. How Bunny’s joy and amusement had bubbled up in a way that his emotions rarely did. And though the plant would eventually be relocated to a carefully maintained patch of earth in the Warren, within sight of the burrow, it would be the memory of Bunny’s joyful laughter that Jack would treasure most.

“Merry Christmas, Bunny.”


End file.
